WUNRN
Via Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD - jeanbolen@gmail.com
WEBSITE IN SUPPORT OF 5th WORLD
CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN
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5WCW - UN 5th World Conference on Women
ECOSOC Statement for CSW 59
- 2015
Stopping Violence
Against Women and Advancement of Women Requires
Top-Down Leadership
and Bottom-up Activism Together: Proposed UN Fifth
World Conference on
Women (5WCW) Would Accelerate Both for Best Outcome.
Statement Submitted by
Pathways To Peace and Women’s World Summit Foundation,
non-governmental
organizations in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC)
Premise: The Beijing
Platform for Action, The Convention to Eliminate All Forms of
Discrimination Against
Women, Security Council Resolution #1325, other UN
documents and
statements from leaders of the UN and UN member states set standards
that in turn, require
political will at the top and active women’s movements on the ground
to be implemented.
With the 1995 Beijing Forum and the women’s movements in the 20th
century as examples of
how women organize and network, and conclusions from
sociological depth
research, the need to have a UN Fifth World Conference on Women as
a means to energize a
global women’s movement becomes evident. Goals for women and
girls cannot be met
without the involvement of civil society at all levels. People must
become informed,
concerned, compassionate, and motivated for real changes to occur.
There would be media
coverage of 5WCW and attendance estimated at 100,000. For
NGO leaders—especially
young women who were too young to be at Beijing, this
conference would be as
important to them, as the Olympic Games are to athletes.
Information, stories,
and photographs would be shared via social networks from the
mobile phones of
participants. The world would know what participants learn about the
status of women,
predictably this would be both appalling and the inspiring.
Historical gains made by
women the world over, demonstrate a principle that recent
research strongly validates:
women gain rights in a world where power is held mostly by
men only when those at the
top are motivated by feminist movements that come from the
bottom up. In India, when
women took to the streets to protest police disregard of rape, it
generated the political will
to make and enforce laws to protect women. A study of four
decades (1975 -2005 of data
collected in seventy countries (Mala Htun and S. Laurel
Weldon, 2012) found that it
was grassroots feminist movements -- not liberal politics, not
women's representation in
government, not national wealth, that makes a difference: only
strong feminist movements
are able to voice and organize around their top priorities as
women. Otherwise, women are
sidelined or subordinated to men's needs or to the
priorities of institutions
or political parties
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and the President of the General Assembly in a joint
statement on International
Women’s Day, March 8, 2012, urged the members of the
General Assembly to pass a
resolution to hold a global conference on women. “Given
that women make up half of
humanity and given the importance and relevance of
women’s issues for global
progress, it is high time that such a world conference be
convened.” In their
statement, they noted that this conference could tackle emerging
issues since the fourth
conference in Beijing (4WCW) in 1995, which would include
implementing UN Security
Council Resolution #1325, equal access to decent work, aid
effectiveness, food
security, traffcking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change
and information technology,
all of which impact on women.
The Secretary General’s request for a Fifth World Conference on Women
(5WCW) has
not been withdrawn, nor has it been taken up. One member state can bring
it to the table
again. Current grassroots advocacy efforts are focused on India as the
country that could
propose and host 5WCW. On India's Independence Day, in his frst major
address
(August 14, 2014), the new prime minister spoke of the need to stop
violence against
women and the shame of India's rape culture. On taking offce in 2008,
Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon made ending violence again women his personal campaign,
creating
UNITE as a UN program which states: “This vision can only be realized
through
meaningful actions and ongoing political commitments of national governments,
backed
by adequate resources.” This is Top-Down vision, which can result in
progressive,
compassionate documents and institutional changes, which however, will
not become
widely implemented until there is Bottom-Up pressure to generate political
will at the top
which participation, media and social networking from those who attend
5WCW will
generate.
It has to be UN sponsored for many attendees to get visas, and it needs
to inspire
individuals and organizations with the fnancial means to recognize and
support young
women leaders and honor elders, especially those from developing areas
to attend.
Similar to scholarships or fellowships, such “sisterships” would honor
altruism, service,
leadership and activism. It would confer fnancial and relationship support
to attend. It
could bring together circles of wise women-elders and, young leaders.
NGOs concerned
with similar problems would share solutions. Attendees would fnd others
who share
values and visions, and be able to remain in communication afterwards.
The result would
be development of grassroots leaders who can communicate and call on
others all over
the world.
Women who attend will grow into larger leadership
roles: examples from Beijing
and the process of mirroring each other and role modeling
When women speak as the leaders they are now, about attending the Beijing
conference
as an NGO representative to the Forum in Hairou, they speak of it, as
being a major event
in their lives. Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt
activist, stands
out, but so do the girls from Minneapolis who were thirteen and fourteen
when they
came, all of whom had their college and work goals infuenced by being
there. It is lifechanging
to grow in awareness, compassion, and admiration for the courage and
leadership of women that you can identify with, and in doing so, see
yourself doing
something similar. The opportunity to know and learn the story of another,
whose life and
circumstance, skin color, religion, or way of life is far different and
yet become friends,
widens one’s world view, a friend is no longer “foreign.” Many women who
were in
Beijing know that they would not be in the positions, occupations that
they now are, but
for the widening of potential choices that followed. Women see themselves
in each other,
and are role models for each other: aspiration and imagination begin
with seeing in
someone else, what is possible for you. This plus the support of organizations
and
networking that will result from attending 5WCW will grow the next generation
of
women leaders.
Women have gender-qualities that a world in crisis
needs, the more women leaders
that grow as a result of 5WCW, the better off the
world will be
Women understand "mother's agenda," which is to provide for
every child, what each
mother wants for her own child: safety--to live without fear of physical
or emotional
violence, good food, safe
water, education, medical care. This happened in Rwanda after
the genocide; women were now
in the majority and the decision-makers. Women whose
children were murdered,
adopted children who had become orphans. Women were
village leaders and women
held a majority in the parliament. They put basic needs of
people frst in building new
infrastructure: such matters as safe water, clinics, roads,
police who could be trusted,
schools. They made decisions collaboratively, which is a
gender advantage that women
have, especially under stress.
Research found that women
have a “tend and befriend,” response to stress, an oxytocin
bonding hormone response as
they talk over the situation and possible solutions, while
men do “fight or fght,” and
isolate or become aggressive, which is an adrenaline plus
testosterone response.
(S.Taylor et al, 2000). According to other more recent studies,
women become more attuned to
others under stressful conditions, and they made better
decisions. Men took more
risks when they were stressed, became more focused on the big
wins, even when they were
costly and less likely; while women tended to look for more
smaller, surer successes.
Women under stress found it easier than usual to see the other’s
perspective, just the
opposite happened for stressed men who became more egocentric.
Current research on stress
and gender differences supports the need for women to be
involved in making
decisions. The more women are seen and see each other as
competent, the more likely
they will step into these roles, for which many who attend
5WCW will be well suited.
In 2000, UN Security Council
Resolution #1325 referred to as the “Women, Peace, and
Security Resolution,” was
adopted. It recognized that women should be involved in the
peace process at every
stage, and now we have research that supports why they should.
What is needed for
implementation is awareness of these gender differences by all
concerned, a top-down,
bottom-up growth in consciousness and women who have the
competence and confdence to
step into these roles.
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